


Cutting it Fine

by Isolus_girl



Category: Doctor Who (2005), Torchwood
Genre: Introspection, Reflection
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-17
Updated: 2020-08-17
Packaged: 2021-03-05 20:21:02
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,803
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25951303
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Isolus_girl/pseuds/Isolus_girl
Summary: Future Jack watches the events of Boom Town on CCTV and tries to stop his team from interfering.
Comments: 4
Kudos: 17





	Cutting it Fine

**Author's Note:**

> I was inspired when watching Boom Town recently to write Future Jack's perspective. It turned angstier than i intended it to be - sorry!

Jack allowed himself to wake up slowly and let awareness filter through his body. It was rare for him to wake up naturally, without a rift alarm or something else blaring through into his room, cutting into his sleep.

He rolled off his bunk and stretched sleepily. It was as he was pulling his trousers up that he realised what the date was. Suddenly, there was a speed to his actions as he buttoned up his Oxford shirt, pulling his braces over his shoulders as he moved through the Hub.

Finding himself at a work station (he didn’t take note of whose) he brought up the CCTV for the Plass. There it was, as he had expected and exactly how he remembered. A small, well loved, wooden blue box. A police public call box, as though right from the 1960s. Jack smiled wryly as he thought how many police boxes he had mistaken for this one in the 60s.

There was no sign of anyone around the box, but then there wouldn’t be. It was still early and those people who were up and about were rushing to get on with their business. Jack suspected he was the only one who had even noticed it. After all, as someone wise had once said, if you put a mysterious blue box, slap bang in the middle of town, people will just walk right past it.

That was how Toshiko found him when she came in that morning. With a brilliant work ethic, Tosh was usually the first one in on a morning. It was clear how much she loved this job and she was good at it too. Kind and thoughtful, Jack usually enjoyed a short early morning chat with her when she arrived, but this morning he barely even noticed that she had come in. All of his attention was drawn to the one small image on the middle of a CCTV feed. She didn’t attempt to talk to him, she gave him a funny look and sat down. Yesterday he had told her to ignore the readings for the nuclear power plant and she still couldn’t understand why.

The next to arrive was Suzie, his second in command. Suzie was passionate and driven to do this job, but she kept herself just a little bit apart from the others. Of course Owen arrived not long afterwards, rushing because he was a little bit late as usual. Owen was full of sarcasm and arrogance, but Jack couldn’t help but feel it was a defence mechanism and there was more underneath the surface. That was part of the reason he hired him, that and the fact he was undeniably a brilliant Doctor and an asset to the team. Jack paid both of them no more attention than he had given Tosh, that was to say nothing.

He could hear them talking about him in the background, but he couldn’t bring himself to care. They already thought he was strange and mysterious, let them have one more thing to discuss when they thought he couldn’t hear them.

Jack didn’t particularly care that he was the object of so much secret conversation, either now or at any time. There was a part of him relished the mystery and the drama of it all, liked having a part of himself that no one else could see. There was a bigger part of him wished he could go back to being that carefree _child_ on the screen in front of him. As each year goes by, he feels that he can identify more and more with the battle weary Time Lord he so desperately wishes to return to.

As expected, he watches a young male in a thick black coat walk purposefully over to the wooden box and casually knock on the door, in exactly the same manner as his heart was calling out for him to do. He did not expect Tosh to come to him with some new predictions for the proposed nuclear power plant at exactly that moment, meaning he had to move swiftly to prevent her seeing his younger self on the screen.

He was proud of his team for noticing the problems with the proposal almost straight away. He purposely hadn’t pointed them in that direction, knowing that he couldn’t intervene anyway, but, exactly like he had trained them to do, they saw an anomaly and kept digging until they uncovered the truth. On any other occasion Jack would be delighted, they were proving they had the potential he imagined they did, but now it was just another inconvenience, having to redirect them away from it.

Fortunately he managed to persuade Tosh that he would deal with it through the official channels. He hated lying to the people he worked with, to the people he was currently closest to (although he really didn’t want to think about what that meant). How could he tell them though? It would be wrong of him to expect them to understand him and treat him the same way. As he watched Tosh place the paperwork in front of him, he was desperately relived that he could stop this particular deception after today, that he really would help to clear this potential disaster up, but he had actually already done it.

A huge sigh left his lips as he thought about what a complicated mess this was. Everything he had been waiting for, everything he wanted was right there on the screen, was above his head, nicely wrapped up in a wooden blue box. He couldn’t run out there and take it though, it was too early in his personal time line. Being immortal was hard enough, without having to worry about time travel as well.

His heart ached as he watched the 4 people exit the box, laughing and joking, bouncing around. All of them carefree and happy, just pleased to be with each other. He wanted to run and warn them about what was to come, or run and hide in the TARDIS until after they left the Game Station. Looking down, he realised he was gripping the edge of the desk so hard his hands were white. It was almost an unconscious way of restraining himself.

Watching the screen until the 4 had left the reaches of the CCTV camera (he could have followed them through the CCTV network, but that was going a bit far, even for him) he braced himself for what he was about to do. Spinning around he said in his best casual drawl,

“Right team, work to do. Suzie, Owen, there is a disturbance in Duffryn, towards Newport. Sending you the details now, but I want you to go and check it out. Tosh I want you to provide technical backup, but in the meantime continue your work on that translation software, you’re close to a breakthrough I can feel it. I’ll be in my office, I need to phone the Mayor.” Plastering on his biggest fake smile, he sauntered through to his office, leaving everyone bustling around him. Of course the Mayor was actually only about an hour away from being confronted so he had no intention of changing events now, but it maintained his cover and afforded him some privacy.

Not that he needed privacy for very long. As soon as Susie and Owen left, he called to Tosh that he was going to fetch some food and slipped out. He had an old friend to visit.

As soon as he left the confines of the Hub, he could feel the draw, the song in his head encouraging him to come closer. His face broke into a small smile as he turned to see the TARDIS, right there in front of him.

“Hello Old Girl,” he spoke softly as he stroked the wood and felt her hum. There was a part of him that felt crazy, coming out here to greet a ship, but his time on the TARDIS was some of the best times of his life. He also would not forget how the TARDIS had saved them all later on this very day. The TARDIS was alive and he would greet her as such.

He knew he didn’t have long until the four rightful occupants returned so with one last longing stroke, he used his remaining willpower to slowly walk back to The Hub.

Jack was in a bad mood, he knew it and Toshiko knew it as he stormed through The Hub, into his office without a sideways look or an attempt at conversation. He watched her out of the corner of his eye as she hovered for a minute, as though deciding whether to come and talk to him. He prayed she wouldn’t, he didn’t have the emotional energy today to make small talk, or even to discuss the mission he had sent Suzie and Owen on.

Toshiko made the right choice and Jack poured himself a stiff drink. It wasn’t a hypervodka, but it would have to do. Normally, he had a hard and fast rule about drinking on duty, but he figured the other him was technically on duty now. For a while he debated pulling up the CCTV again to watch the group return to the TARDIS, but he decided to try and gain some control over his emotions. He felt like a rookie in the Time Agency again, going wild over a glimpse of some past event, or past person. Except this was different. This was the people he had been waiting for, the life he wanted to return to, the life he didn’t understand why he wasn’t still part of. 

When he closed his eyes, the memories flooded in. The three of them laughing together, running together. The awed expression on Rose's face when she saw something amazing, that tongue touched smile, the proud expression on the Doctor's when one of them did something impressive. The ongoing joke between them about buying him a drink. 

He hoped they knew how hard he had continued to be Bigger on the Inside, for them. Even after everything he was trying to follow the life he had learnt to love, the life they had taught him to love. He didn't always feel he did it very well, but he tried. He really tried. A soft snort left his lips as he thought how much he now resembled the Time Lord. Making the tough decisions because no-one else would. Trying to look after the innocent people around him. He knew now why the Doctor ran, there were times he wished he had the luxury of the same. 

In his head he tried to picture what would be happening at this moment. Although it was so very long ago, the memories came back as though it were yesterday. Infiltrating the council buildings, capturing Blon, her trickery in asking for a final meal, trying to shame them all into feeling bad for her. Suddenly remembering he had the electric handcuffs to prevent her from running away. 

Something struck him that he hadn’t thought about in a long time. The Doctor’s uneasy feeling about the words, Bad Wolf. The Game Station being run by Bad Wolf. A warning? Not for the first time, he wished he could run and warn their younger selves. It wasn’t long after their day in Cardiff that they had all been pulled onto the Game Station and everything had gone so very wrong. 

In the distance he could hear Owen and Susie returning from their trip and registered the timing of it all. Right now he would be underneath the TARDIS, working on the extrapolator, the Doctor would be at dinner and Rose would be outside on Mermaid Quay with Mickey. It was time to brief his team. 

The moment he stepped outside his office Tosh spoke to him. 

“Jack, I know you’re busy, but i’m getting strange spikes in rift behaviour and energy readings.” 

Both Suzie and Owen looked suitably shocked. Jack took it in his stride. There were some advantages to knowing what was going to happen, it certainly took the urgency out of a situation. 

“Owen, I need you to head towards the Quay, don’t get too close to the Plass. Take your med bag, there might be casualties. Susie, I need you to coordinate with local emergency services and the local authorities. Tell them it is all under control and to keep people away from the Plass. Tosh I need you to monitor the rift, it will resist for a while, but as soon as you are able to, shut it down. If you can siphon off any excess power safely that would also be helpful.”

Everyone scrambled to follow their instructions, except Tosh who was already sat at her workstation. Jack was pleased nobody questioned him, he must have put just the right amount of authority into his tone. There was only one thing he needed to do and he found himself sitting at the spare workstation again, pulling up the CCTV. He watched Owen and Suzie go to follow their instructions, then not long afterwards he watched a blue wooden box channel the rift through into the atmosphere. The glowing blue streaks of light shooting into the air, forming what looked like blue clouds. The whole box seemed to glow. First, the Doctor and Blon returned, him holding tightly onto her arm. Then, not long afterwards he watched Rose run towards the TARDIS. He brought his hand up to touch the screen, wishing he could touch either of them again. 

The screen might be continuing to show a blue wooden box, bursting with light, but Jack was seeing a console room, full of flashing lights and smoke, a large green clawed hand holding Rose by her neck. He was remembering the sickening feeling as he heard Rose gasp for breath, the desperation as he looked to the Doctor for permission, praying he had a plan. It was a strange feeling, knowing exactly what was going on inside that box, seeing it play out before his eyes like a film. His thoughts were consumed by memories of a golden light as the TARDIS opened up, the Doctor’s calm voice, encouraging Blon to look into it, Blon losing her grip on Rose and his desperate grab for her, bringing her round to safety. 

The light continued to soar into the sky and Jack started to get twitchy. “Cutting it a bit fine Doctor,” he muttered under his breath. He was sure it hadn’t taken this long. Was there something he was forgetting? Something he was missing, that he was supposed to do?

He was drawing a blank when the light stopped flowing through the TARDIS. At the edge of his awareness he registered Tosh calling his name, urgently trying to get his attention. It didn’t seem urgent to him, he knew she wanted to tell him she had closed the rift, but he turned his attention towards her anyway. Anything to stop the pictures in his mind that were now showing him Blon as an egg. As he was reassuring Tosh that she had done the right thing and there was no lasting damage he caught a glimpse of Rose leaving the TARDIS on the CCTV, obviously on her hunt for Mickey. Vaguely he hoped she wouldn’t run into Owen, although he supposed it didn’t really matter if she did as neither of them knew each other. 

The rift readings were interesting and he told Tosh to save them to file. He watched her do so as he heard the alarm, indicating Suzie entering the Hub. Although he caught her eye, she only nodded at him, indicating she had done as he had instructed and he turned back to towards the CCTV images. 

There was very little left to see, but as he watched the ship dematerialise he thought back to how they had joked and laughed at going to Raxicorocofallipatorious. Rose’s sad mood hadn’t lasted for long. None of them had ever been sad for long when they were in each other’s company. He felt the contrast to his own life, spent waiting and moping. Marking time rather than truly living. As he turned off the computer screen, he wondered if this was his wake up call. A message to himself not to waste this gift of time. Maybe it was a gift and not a curse, maybe he needed to change his viewpoint. When he found his Doctor, he wanted to be able to stand up proud and tell him how he had used his time. He wanted the Doctor to be proud of him, as he had once been so long ago. 

It was time to change and he was going to start today. 


End file.
